What’s that smell?

When Reagan and Daddy Bush finally tied the knot after their big dustup in 1980, the only reasonable conclusion was that they were really consummating a marriage between the military/industrial complex and big oil. This probably started out as a tenuous union but eventually morphed into the shadow entity most appropriately known as BUSHCO.

Fast forward to the “presidency” of Junior Bush (he who smiles for the camera in Beijing, giving inane interviews on sports while the country of Georgia sprouts a smallish, but still important, military clash). Did the oil end of the dual headed beast get properly fed subsequent to the 2000 “election”? Maybe the best way to answer this question is to agree that the size of the windfall is in the multi trillions of dollars and leave it at that.But what about the far more sizeable segment of the U.S. economy that depends on military contracts for its “bread and butter” (“champagne and caviar”, of course, being far closer to the truth but somehow the focus always gets directed to the folks on the assembly line rather than on those receiving their share of the BUSHCO provided money mountain)?

I mean, sure, the death merchants (make that the BUSHCO merchants of fast human death rather than the slow planetary death side of things) had Afghanistan handed to them by Bin Laden, and Iraq thrown gratuitously into their lap while most folks were acting too stupid to notice, but have things really been equitable? I mean, the defense budget has at most doubled compared to what would have happened anyway, and Halliburton, long time oil industry, and only short time defense industry player, sponges up money that would otherwise have gone to traditional M/IC players.

Something just had to be done to steal more of our money for the weapons makers and keeping “Star Wars” on indefinite life support, while pushing old cold war buttons over at the Kremlin certainly seems to be enough to get the job done. Really dig into the numbers and the whole ABM concept has always penciled out as costing enough, if allowed to drag on, to literally bankrupt our country all by itself. This is due, of course, to the fact that it requires a virtual infinite timeline and infinite budget to prove that it ultimately is not viable. Or we could just accept the views of those experts who posit that fifty million dollar suitcase nukes really can be depended upon to trump multi trillion dollar planetary security blankets that protect only against obsolete notions of what sorts of things are truly threatening.

Still, Russia can’t afford to be caught with a “weapon of mass destruction” on our soil, and can’t be sure that it would not fail if it tried to smuggle something in. So the safer bet is to try to defeat our trying to create what can only be called a “first strike capability.” And the only weapon available for that is escalating belligerence in response to what should most honestly be labeled as our provocations, and what BUSHCO is laboring mightily to pawn off as nothing other than our righteous indignation.

Except that Georgia attacked Russia, and not the other way around. And except that no sentient being would believe that Russia would acquiesce to the U.S. building an ABM system (whatever that might actually turn out to consist of) smack dab in the middle of where we would want it to be if we really were planning to use it aggressively.

And then there’s the fact that BUSHCO, of all people, forgot that the lands of Russia contain more developable resources, including hydrocarbons, than any other nation on the planet. We bid up oil, etc. and Russia gains untold wealth as a result. And then we implement a foreign policy initiative at the expense of Russia, and do so while ignoring the fact that an economically resurgent Russia, which we caused, now has the economic and political resources to effectively counter our move.

But at least we have created tension, and tension will move product. At least if by “product” we mean things that make very loud noises, cause death and destruction, and really now exist mainly for the purpose of furthering the agenda of the Republican Party (as hijacked by BUSHCO).

Google dropped a neo-Nazi site from its domain-registration service like a hot potato https://t.co/bL0DPT0L1pabout 3 days ago

Who Were the Counterprotesters in Charlottesville? https://t.co/Qs0FmLqfxIabout 3 days ago

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